At what point did the garage become the neglected space of unstylish storage and mess … the black sheep of the house that is sadly only good for hanging bicycles and storing gardening materials? I think the garage can mean more. Here you have a room that's dedicated to ruggedness; might as well take advantage of it! From accent colors to unique storage (read: elementary foot lockers), these seven inspirational photos will help spruce up any carport.

If you want your garage to feel like it belongs with the house (and less like a place for your trash), treat it as such. The half-wall paneling and trim add a tasteful, understated accent to this garage that already has all the bells and whistles. Even if you were to take out the vintage car, hanging airplane and giant iron wheels, the color separation in the paneling still allows it to hold its own.

Not everyone can have a custom garage built for their Bentley, but there is something that can be taken from this photo: the consistency of the cabinets. If you need your garage to mostly serve as storage, make a statement by using only one style and color. This really defines what the room is meant for, and says it boldly.

You shouldn’t go college-style and decorate your place with street signs, but the one room where big signage totally works is the garage. Signs just seem to make perfect visual sense when paired with industrial equipment, and I especially love how these are hanging from the ceiling. If you can’t find such memorabilia, vintage framed ads can add a similar effect.

Having a sink in the garage (especially of that style of sink) is an elegant and practical touch. However, this is probably a bit unreasonable unless you’re building a custom home. Using tree stumps for shelving, however, is easily adaptable to most spaces and gives off both ruggedness and warmth.

I love the American realness in this photograph. And I think clutter can have its place in a garage as long as it's authentic, and kept to a minimum. There is stylishness to actually using your space to work. The leaning pieces of plywood, the WD-40, the squeegee: this is what American garages are supposed to be filled with.

The vintage line of Porsches certainly help the aesthetic in this room, but what makes this garage pop is the red accent wall. Even if you don’t have framed photos of cars to match your luxury line of German automobiles, simply painting a wall a bold color makes you immediately notice the space, rather than avoid it.

An easy way to make your garage stand out is by using interesting or unusual pieces for storage. Enter: elementary-style metal foot lockers. I use these in my house to store magazines, books, style guides and field notes, but think how easily (and stylishly) this could be adapted to a garage.

Most practical element of this is the storage lockers. Most garages are not as large as these. I started this summer burning my 'stuff'. It is amazing how much stuff we can accumulate and guess what, I am not even finished! I have another round left for the next summer as it is below zero right now.

I knew I was missing something in our garage..."The vintage line of Porsches " lol
We built our detached garage about 5 years ago and I made sure to incorporate storage and work benches. We went with a white and gray color scheme so its stays a manly space but still crisp.

"If you want your garage to feel like it belongs with the house (and less like a place for your trash), treat it as such." and "If you need your garage to mostly serve as storage, make a statement by using only one style and color. "
Wow. I admit I never thought of that. It is so simple. Painting the garage walls, and making them match the house interior. I would be much less likely to stack 'crapola' in there and more likely to deal with the 'crapola' (put away or throw away). We have storage shelves but making the storage shelves look uniform and nice, that is a good challenge without replacing them with cabinets. I think I will try to add a cover of some style until I can put on doors.
Great thoughts. And great pictures to illustrate the thoughts. It is hard to find pictures of "normal" garages, (I mean who takes those? ) so you did a good job with the photos you could find of the usually less than notable garage.

Nice to see someone giving ideas for garages. Our old cement block garage had a shed roof which hurricanes destroyed. This winter we plan to restore it with an Irish cottage roof, French doors instead of a rollup, a loft with spiral staircase, and polished/stained cement floor, with walls inside and out freshly stuccoed. In a pinch, we can park a car there. But the main purpose will be my studio, wintering huge container plants, hosting casual gatherings, maybe housing my two large parrots part of the year. Multifunctional it will be, I might even let DH bring in his table saw in bad weather. Of course it will have a/c, power, but not set up for full time living due to city codes. However, just outside the back door will be our irrigation well with a private place for an outdoor shower apres gardening. Instead of cramming all the activity into our small cottage, we can spread out into this now unusable space. Jonathan, please add more photos to your album, you seem to know how to mine the motherlode.

Shareen72 - Thanks for the kudos... and yes, finding photos of garages (normal or not normal) was def a challenge. Moccasinlanding - this revamp of yours sounds amazing! I would consider nixing the idea of occasionally keeping a car in there and just rock it as a studio only.

Jonathan, great article! These are all great tips. Overhead storage racks truly provide a way to "take back" space you already own and hold a ton of stuff. 83% of America enters and exits through the garage. It's time we took back the largest room in our homes by getting everything up off the floor. SafeRacks ceiling storage system is an easy DIY project for the weekend warrior. Check us out at http://www.SafeRacks.com